Beekeeping: Those wrascally bees!

As y'all know, I've been using the butterfly feeder to feed the bees. The feeder has three braided cotton cordages - one end goes in the sugar water, the other end comes up through a hole and mimics flower stamens. The bees learned, figured out or ?? how to pull the cordage *out* of the feeder (see pic). The first day, I thought I was mis-understanding somehow what was going on, or that the bees weren't responsible. The second day, I realized, I *did* understand what was going on, and the bees *were* responsible. By the end of the 2nd day, two of the cordage pieces were gone, so I took the top off the feeder, put a couple small rocks in it, and am just using the bottom of the feeder as a dish -- bees are fine with it and it's easier for me. How, though, I wonder, did they pull all that cordage out? Little bee chain gangs -- or like old-time sailors hoisting the anchor? And were they singing heave-ho kinds of songs, LOL! jo